Turn 4 Assistance

[Royal]

My FC and I have been struggling with Turn 4, specifically Wave 6. I was wondering if someone has any insight. Our group composition is 2 tanks, 2 healers (WHM/SCH), 2 melee dps (bard/drg), and 2 BLM.

We have entered Wave 6 multiple times with the single dreadnaught alive ranging from 55% to 70ish%. I realize he should be a little lower but that isn't our problem (yet!). The last wave spawns 1 soldier, 1 knight, 1 rook, 2 bugs, and another dreadnaught if memory serves me right.

Here is what we've been doing. At the start of Wave 6, we immediately blow up the spinner rook to prevent any unwanted pox applications and is usually tanked by a melee dps (drg). He handles it fine at first but usually one of the BLMs will steal aggro pretty quickly and manawall tank it. It does not take very long to die at all.

The MT picks up the 2nd dreadnaught who was already tanking the first dreadnaught from Wave 5.

The OT picks up the soldier, knight, 2 bugs all on himself and immediately does hallowed ground. Everything goes perfectly fine until hallowed ground disappears and then he just drops. If i remember correctly, the rook dies about the time his hallowed ground disappears. After I help finish the rook all dps goes on the old dreadnaught. This is our wall. The rook is dead, the Wave 5 dreadnaught is pretty close to where he should be in terms of dps (~50%), and everything is controlled aggro wise at least, nothing is running around. I do not think the problem is healing to be honest, I think it is a mechancial problem. A flaw in our strat but we can't figure it out.

Our average gear level is 3-5 ilvl 90s and very little if none of the HQ crafted items. Our dps is pretty good I feel. We cleared Wave 3 dreadnaught with ease everytime. I mention the gear just in case you guys think that is the problem.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

EDIT: A big point of discussion has been what to LB at this point. We can't decide.

[Norbi]

That particular wave is painful, but there are some things you can do to ease the burden on the healers and help the tanks take a little less damage. For example, Eye For An Eye on both tanks, Virus on one or more of the Dreadnaughts, Sacred Soil on whichever tank you feel is usually having more trouble staying alive, Rain Of Death on both packs of mobs, Mantra to help give a little extra healing throughput for that phase, and/or Shadow Flare on the off tank's mobs to give them Slow. Mitigation is king in this part of the fight.

[Sheapy]

Is your WHM healing the MT? Our group used to have the SCH healing the MT but when we switched it to the WHM it became very easy. Cure II spam along with PLD rotations should allow you to clear it. The way you're handling the turn seems to be perfectly fine. Even with a WAR as our OT I don't have trouble healing him as a SCH. Sacred Soils, E4E, adlo usage, and circle tanking from the OT will all keep him alive. Since you haven't gotten past this part yet, I'd recommend spamming Adlo + Cure II just to clear the phase and eventually tuning your heals to be more MP efficient (Physicks/Cure).

With Cure II spam your WHM should have no trouble solo healing your MT. At best I micro my pet to cast Embrace on the MT every once in awhile.

Your gear also sounds fine. I remember clearing T4 with an average of 1-2 i90 pieces on most people and 0 i90s on both of our healers (WHM had +1, SCH didn't). So at this point, it is a healing problem. The way you're dealing with the phase is the exact same as the way my group does it. I'm usually sitting around 3k ish MP as the SCH, not sure about the WHM. If there are mana issues, have the Bard uses Ballad during the phase.

You can see how we do it at 46:47.
http://www.twitch.tv/exocorsair/c/3235178
Even if the MT is topped off, you can see our WHM using Cure II. OT is running around in circles with E4E and Sacred Soil.

[Royal]

I will admit healing is not my strong suit as the BLM of the group but I will talk to my FC about your suggestions and find out excatly what the healers are and aren't doing. Thanks so much for the feedback.

EDIT: I do know that we have no trouble keeping the tank alive that has both dreadnaughts. I'm just not sure if the WHM or the SCH is the one doing it though.

[Royal]

Don't mean to sound ignorant but what is "Circle Tanking." Is that a fancy expression for kiting?

[Soulburn32]

Don't mean to sound ignorant but what is "Circle Tanking." Is that a fancy expression for kiting?

Yes you want to run in a circle or figure 8 formation to take minimal damage

[CompSci88]

We feed 2 bugs to the 3rd Dread immediately then Tank LB1+Rampart -> Sentinel -> Hollow Grounds -> 2nd Dread should be dead here, if not -> Divine Seal+Convalescence. We let one bard handle the rook alone, the remaning dps (BLM/DRG/BARD) stay on the 2nd Dread until it's dead then move to Kinight/Soldier. tbh, I think our group is the only one using Tank LB1. It was good ages ago when we were undergeared. Now even though we're pretty much overgeared turn 4, we're too lazy to change our strategy.

[Etgar]

Two physical dps you mean, I don't think brd is melee lol. :P

Your kill order and pick up sound the same as my group, so that's not the problem. Are you tanks both Pally? If so I would say it's a cd management problem. We have our pally hold the Dreads and our war tank the adds, so he can't even HG.
But yes kill the rock with your physical, than get on the wave 5 dread, than to the OT adds and mage LB them. Is your Bard using Rain of Death to help your tanks? Are you using Virus on the Dreads with the other Blm? All this stuff helps seeing your damage isn't the problem.

[matic]

We do a very similar strat to yours, OP. We have WAR OT take soldier/knight/bugs while DPS LBs the rook then immediately burn down the "old" Dreadnaught because our biggest problem was the MT taking too much damage from 2x Dreads. Since your problem is the OT dying, I'd say either let him use tank LB or have dps get on at least one of the adds before going after the old dread, if you think your MT can handle it.

[Aikota]

LB the took with the DRG and kill 2nd dread asap. As a SCH healer who heals the OT the damage is very very high. And I heal a warrior though it with +1 relic and 3 i90 pces and 2 AK pces. Its a healing problem imo. Need to use E4E and sacred and rotate cooldowns with tank. Adlo when tank is70%+ and use Eos for healing increase, I use selene for first 5phases. Save aethflow for lustrate on tank and make sure ballad is up to spam heal.